Agent Fiasco to the white courtesy phone please…

After some late-night talking (Junior currently gets off work at midnight), we’d decided to make an offer on that house. So the next day I called the agent with some more questions about it and some questions about how one goes about making an offer. Somehow, she jumped on my procedural questions into a committment to making an offer, and at our very maximum qualification amount too. She got so excited that she drew up the paperwork; I figured, whatever. We’re sure not signing anything in such a hurry, but if she wants to have to do things several times, that’s her lookout.

I gave her the number of our financial lady, since I didn’t have the copy of our approval letter in hand. Now mind you, our loan officer is a long-time friend of Junior’s family. She’s our behind-the-scenes advisor, as she’s done a bunch of loans from the lender side.

So when Junior got out of his class, he called our lady, as I’d asked him to do, to pick up a copy of our letter while he was near there. And wasn’t he surprised to hear a “Congratulations!” Apparently, the real estate agent had promised the loan officer that it was a done-deal, that we had made an offer on the house. Now, our lady knew better, and was trying to talk to the agent about some of the things that she’s seen hold up loans. Things like required repairs, and no leins on the property, need to be in the contract, or the lender is going to kick it back.

The agent got all huffy with our loan officer, saying that she and I had gone over an extensive list and that she didn’t have to put repairs into a contract because she “never has any problem” getting repairs done. The agent, who is the daughter-in-law of someone I vaguely know from work and whom I haven’t actually met in person yet, was trying to claim to our lady that she and I had a long-standing relationship and that she considered me family. Now, spouting this to someone who’s known the family since Junior was in diapers made us snort. And I went over a list, did I? No, I asked two questions, and she ran right over me before I could open my mouth to ask any more. I know this, even though she did her best to spin me around, because I am a compulsive note-taker when I’m on the phone, and I had a grand total of two things on my notes.

This was the last straw. This agent, besides being almost intolerably hyper, has been extremely pushy. She hasn’t listened to our concerns at all, and was now lying and exaggerating to our personal financial consultant. I had had enough.

I texted Junior with a quick, “mind if I fire our agent?” Once I told him what was going on, he agreed with me. I know he’d have backed me up even if I’d done it without asking first, but it’s polite to tell him before I drop bombs like this.

I called Agent Fiasco’s office, and she happened to be out. I told her secretary that we had decided to go in a different direction, and that she didn’t need to do any further work on our account. I figured that was only polite, so she didn’t waste her time. We had never met, except for the showing her husband walked us through, so we had no agent contract.

While I was on the phone with another agent explaining the situation and trying to wrangle another shot at that same house, she called back. Fine, but I was busy, and I don’t answer my cell phone when I’m busy. Then our lady called. Hmm.

I got off the phone and called our lady back first, because she doesn’t make me grind my teeth. Turns out that Agent Fiasco had called her, without bothering to indentify herself, and chewed her out. She claimed that I was all for it before she talked to her and that she must have changed our minds and it was her fault that she wasn’t getting the commission from us (easy money, by the way. I figure she had us pegged for suckers. While we may be quiet and polite most of the time, we are decidedly not suckers.)

I apologized to our lady , and I think we’re done with it. The new agent didn’t have that house in her listings, but she looked around for it and it is still available. She can’t make an offer on it without seeing it, so we’re going back out there with her this afternoon. And she’s got some others for us to see, and by her tone, is very willing to work for us, not scrape up all the money she can for herself at the expense of her client.

Junior once told me a story of how he walked away from a truck purchase over principles and a dollar. I knew he’d back me for walking away from this on principles alone. I told him we were peas in a pod, but I don’t think he’d seen me in action quite like this before. Now he knows; we are very well suited for each other in this department too.

So we may yet make an offer on this house today. Seamus figured out for me at the game last night that one of the kids on his team lives next door to it, so I pumped the neighbor for information. Seems it’s been on the market for a year, which gives us a pretty strong purchasing position. We’ll talk to our new agent, Agent Reasonable, and see how it goes. There are always more out there.